The Hills Have Aes Sidhe

Game 3 Intro

19

MAY/16

While the Changelings and Vampire were sleeping, the Werewolves were on the move. Since Nelson was clearly not back in Valerie's clutches, Shaw and Gerry went looking for him at his last known location. Connor has sent Nelson out to the far edge of the territory to “do his fucking job” and scout for disturbances, when he disappeared. They burned nearly all their daylight hours searching before they found Nelson… well, parts of him. Blood spray for yards, a trail of viscera where he tried to crawl away from his assailant, leading to what was left of his body, long cold. “Fucking hell…” Shaw whispered with a look of horror on his face. Gerry and Shaw shifted to wolf form and began sniffing around the area for traces of who or what had done this. It was shortly afterwards, as the dying light of the setting sun swept through the trees, that Gerry heard an awful sound. It was like the startled yelp of a dog whose paw had accidentally been stepped on, only magnified to an intensity that made Gerry's blood run cold. It came from Shaw. Gerry turned, expecting to be under attack. He saw only Shaw stumbling over a front leg that looked to have suddenly gone lame. He barked frantically at Gerry to run. Gerry followed Shaw's lead just as something whizzed past his own ear.
…
Gerry and Shaw came up over the top of a rocky ridge and half-leapt/half-tumbled down into gully on the other side. At the bottom of the gully, Shaw darted into a hole among the rocks that he seemed to know would be there and uninhabited. Some kind of animal den and decent size. Large enough for the two of them to sit up after they shifted to human forms to talk. Shaw had a hole bored clean through his shoulder. A wound that could only be the work of something silver. He pressed a hand over it to try and staunch the bleeding. He spoke in short bursts of words between pained gasps for breath. “Hunters. Haven't been any here… since I was a kid. If they have silver bullets… they have silver everything. Werewolf hunting party. Fuck!” Shaw lifted his hand, looked at it dripping blood, and got an idea. “Listen, Gerry. I'm going to leave a trail… lead them away from the house. We can't let them find it. You, go get the Changelings. Get them to help us. Hunters probably won't know what they are.” Gerry hesitated to abandon his wounded pack-mate but Shaw is obstinate once he's made his mind up over something. “GO!” Shaw shouted, pulling himself to his feet, leaving a crimson hand print on the stone. He shifted back to wolf and ran off with an ungainly limp and strained howl.

Gerry Recap:

So I was way off, that harpy turned out to be one of the Sirens from the old Greek legends. As equally deadly as she was gorgeous, the type of woman who pretends she doesn't see me even if I'm standing right in front of her, as she is currently doing.

She clearly thinks as little of Shaw as she insults his mother almost immediately. It takes everything I have not to laugh when Alexei starts talking shit to this woman while being held off the ground by his neck; what an absurd situation. Nelson isn't here but she wants Alexei back anyway, the thing is, Alexei has no intention of going back into that house. I wouldn't want to either. She looks just like the type of woman that kills men through seduction. I bet you'd die with a smile on your face.

So we leave, chased from the house by curses and promises of retribution. As Alexei has proven himself to an ally, albeit a loudmouth one, Shaw gives him his key and tells him to get the others over there for some rest; we break off to Nelson's patrol territory to try and figure this mess out. Connor is furious and tells us to teach Nelson a lesson if we catch him sleeping on duty.

It takes all day searching, in and out of wolf forms, for us to find him. Well…parts of him anyway. Nelson is now spread across a small meadow and about 3 trees. His legs are gone, we never found them, by the looks of it he was smashed against all three trees, losing body parts as he went. Half his head looks gnawed on, his guts are everywhere, apparently falling out of him as he tried to crawl with his remaining good arm away from whatever it was. In wolf we pick up scents: blood, Nelson, and a strange wolf?; he had pissed all over Nelson's corpse, marking his kill. Goddamn.

We split up to begin tracking him, trying to figure out where he came in and out of our territory. A shot rings out, and a yelp. Shaw! I run towards the sound when Shaw bursts through the brush on three legs sending at me [Become wind, we are hunted!] The air reeks of men and gunpowder.

Shaw does his best to keep up and we find den to shift and speak. He hasn't healed, and blood is pouring from his shoulder. “Hunters. Haven't been any here… since I was a kid. If they have silver bullets… they have silver everything. Werewolf hunting party. Fuck!” He stares at the blood on his hands, " “Listen, Gerry. I'm going to leave a trail… lead them away from the house. We can't let them find it. You, go get the Changelings. Get them to help us. Hunters probably won't know what they are.” No way I'm leaving him like this, I am the shield that guards the pack, the warrior that destroys our enemies. "You've barely been in a real fight Gerry, these guys are hardened vets, they'll take you apart and where would that leave us. Go man, now!" He shifts and starts a trail.

I am greased lightning getting back to my car. By the time I'm back in Catskill two hours later Shaw is texting me that he lost them but we'll need backup. He tells me to get our new friends while he gets patched up. I start the drive to Shaw's place to pick up the others; they owe us and I get the feeling they would be all too willing to pay up. Tonight, I'll rip the guts from these so-called Hunters, and show them what real monsters live in the dark woods.

Shaw thoughts:

On Gerry: When everyone's mean to you your whole life, you turn out one of two ways. Either you become a bitter asshole or you go out of your way to be nice to everybody, so you don't become just like the people you hate. Gerry's a nice guy, he'll go far. There's not much to him, he's a wiry little guy, but he's got grit and sometimes that's what matters.

On Alexei: I don't know what to make of him. He hardly speaks and when he does its sarcasm or some cryptic bullshit. I shouldn't trust the little bloodsucker but he's been cooperative so far. His loyalty will probably come down to whether he's more scared of Valerie or me. I'm fine with that.
Oh yeah, Valerie. Should I tell mom she's back in town? Probably shouldn't stir that up, I don't wanna deal with it.

On Franky: I can't understand a fucking thing this guy says. And he's not like any of the kinds of changelings I'm used to. I wonder what made him that way but I don't dare ask. He doesn't seem to really understand what's happened to him either. Poor guy. His life seems real complicated. I can't believe Valerie was cheating on Nelson with someone twice his age. Poor bastard, Nelson didn't deserve any of this. I don't like the way Valerie was looking at me either. She looks at all werewolves like a starving person at a buffet table. It's fucking sick.

On Joey: I don't understand anything that comes out of this guy's mouth either but for a different reason. Dude seems a little off. Like, you expect changelings to be fucked up by what they went through, but Joey… Well, I hope nobody gave him a shotgun. I hope somebody's looking out for him. It's kinda a good thing, I guess, that we got so many out of the hedge at once. They can help each other come to terms.

On Larry: This guy, I know his type. One of those City tough guys who thinks he's hot shit with the ladies. I think I've been in his shitty bar too, seemed like a good place to get raped. I hope he doesn't start anything I have to finish. Arcadia changes people though, in more than the obvious ways. There might be hope for him not to be a scumbag if he learned his lesson. Oof, I shouldn't think like that. Nobody deserves a trip through Arcadia.

I wish Cara didn't wrap my shoulder so tight, I can barely move it. I guess that's probably the point. Goddamn it hurts too. I should've asked her to leave painkillers. I hope Gerry gets here soon, before the trail goes cold. Somebody's gonna fucking pay for this and what they did to Nelson. Damn, I'm tired though. How long have I been up, two days? I'll just rest here til Gerry gets here. Couch is already ruined, gonna need a new one again, no sense in getting blood upstairs too. Not looking forward to cleaning up.